If you haven't already paid, or are curious to see if you can get it cheaper, I would send an email to info@eccouncil.org and see who your local/nearest distributor is. That may bring the price down, I'm not sure.

No, there is no headquarters there that I'm aware of there... just in the US and Malaysia.

The only thing I can think of is the shipping cost and that there is no local distributor. I'm not quite sure exactly how many books are included in v6, but there were 3 plus a lab manual in v5 (making it quite heavy). Update when you receive a reply.

Not sure how helpful this is but I'll post anyway.You can still take the V5 C|EH exam if you're strapped for cash, you can find study guides/books on Amazon for a fraction of the price for official courseware from EC Council, for example 3 books for $85.93 http://www.amazon.com/Certified-Ethical ... Promotions

You have around 7 months to take the V5 exam:"The CEHv6 exam is currently in beta and will be available on the 5th November, 2008. The CEH v5 exam will be available until June 3rd, 2009 then retired."http://www.eccouncil.org/Exam/312-50.htmSomething to consider